Springsteen keyboardist Danny Federici dies at 58

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Keyboardist Danny Federici, who for
four decades played alongside rock star Bruce Springsteen as
part of the E Street Band and helped define his rollicking
sound, has died of melanoma. He was 58.

Federici's death at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
in New York on Thursday was announced on Springsteen's official
Web site and the rocker postponed a pair of weekend concerts in
Florida.

"Danny and I worked together for 40 years - he was the most
wonderfully fluid keyboard player and a pure natural musician.
I loved him very much ... we grew up together," Springsteen
said on the Web site.

Federici had suffered from melanoma for three years and
last played with the E Street Band at a concert in Indianapolis
on March 20, delivering an accordion solo on the song "4th of
July, Asbury Park (Sandy)."

Like Springsteen, Federici was born in New Jersey and
played the accordion from an early age, performing at parties
and clubs and developing an interest in jazz and blues music.

He first joined Springsteen in the late 1960s, when the
singer songwriter who would become known as "The Boss" was
still an unknown, and Federici's organ, accordion and keyboard
work was considered a key part of the E Street Band's signature
sound on such songs as "Hungry Heart."

Nicknamed "Phantom," he was often overshadowed onstage by
the out-sized presence of saxophone player Clarence Clemons,
but on leaving the band to seek treatment for his illness in
November of last year, Federici was described by Springsteen as
"one of the pillars of our sound."

When Springsteen put the E Street Band on hiatus during the
1990s to explore other projects, Federici recorded a solo jazz
album titled "Flemington" after his New Jersey hometown. He
released a second album, "Sweet," in 2004.